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You Could Only Dream Of Having A Career Like Josh McCown
January 8, 2020
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It has been said that, "when you help others figure out their dreams that your dreams will come true in the process."
I don't especially love musicals, but I saw this one about a guy named Joseph, who you'd know by the many colors of his coat and this Joseph spends years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. What eventually gets him sprung from the clink is that he can tell people what their dreams mean.
When I think of celebrated names in our industry, from Howard Stern to Ryan Seacrest, and I would add Bobby Bones to that list, what we realize quickly is that very few end up having a career like that. And in the NFL, regardless of this season, Tom Brady is the obvious talent to look at for that career that makes others awestruck.
As great as the three radio talents mentioned are, and they ARE, beyond the work that they put in daily, there are two uncontrollable factors that put them in the limelight. A timeless best selling book puts it this way, "The race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, or favor to men of skill; but TIME and CHANCE happens to them all."
Now, if I could only remember the name of that great book, I'd suggest it for reading.
Time and Chance
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz went down with an injury as they faced the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs, so back-up quarterback Josh McCown made history by simply entering the game. It was the first playoff game he had ever played, an oddity for a man who was in his 17th year in pro football, and what made it historic was that he was doing it for the first time at the ripe age of 40.
Veteran sportscaster Cris Collinsworth spent little time on history being made, and instead talked about this scrappy Philadelphia team, who with a ridiculous amount of injuries had gotten themselves into the playoffs. He referenced their key to winning being a change in the mindset of Wentz, and then gave full credit for that mindset change to the influence Josh McCown had on Wentz and the team.
Read the 2018 column, Why Every Team Needs a Josh McCown by clicking here.
For a Disney movie, it would have been a better ending if McCown threw a touchdown and then a 2-point conversion for the tie, and then either with time on the clock or in overtime, pulling out the victory. Despite coming up short, what McCown displayed in that game was pure heart and watching it until the very end, you had this hope and confidence that he could. And you could see that he had it too.
Regardless of the outcome, what a game. But even more so, what a career. The average years a quarterback plays in the NFL is three, so McCown is just one year shy of being six times that average. This opportunity to soldier on didn't come to him as a fluke, but out of a career whose second half was some of the most unselfish football ever played by a man slinging the ball.
Being Remembered When Everyone Else Forgot
It all started, in a downtime period, when McCown wasn't selected to be on any team's roster. He found himself out of the league, but instead of packing it in and pouting, he began pouring it out; his knowledge and experience that is--volunteering as a coach for Marvin Ridge High School, just outside of Charlotte.
When you help others figure out their dreams, your dreams will come true in the process. And as the high school season ended, McCown who was, at best, forgotten in the NFL got a call from the desperate Chicago Bears. Their quarterback Jay Cutler got injured, and after a four game slide with their backup, McCown was given the start on Monday Night Football Christmas night 2011, his first NFL start in over four years.
Chicago lost to Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay that night, but anyone who had eyes saw something magical. The announcers on MNF kept saying, "Can you believe this guy was coaching high school football only a couple weeks ago?"
It was two seasons later when McCown would flat out win the backup role in Chicago and when Cutler got hurt, McCown would show up and have a season for the record books. In just eight games, with five starts, McCown threw 13 Touchdowns with only one interception. To this day, McCown holds the franchise best single season passer rating. He became the first Bears quarterback to throw for 300 yards in three consecutive games.
High Level Performance
The Bears were so hot that when Cutler came back, fans and players wanted McCown to stay in as starter. But playing the most unselfish football ever known, McCown demanded that his role was to handle duties until Cutler got well. Cutler took over, and unfortunately couldn't keep the momentum created by the spark of Josh McCown.
Fast forward to 2019, and out of all the choices for a backup, Philadelphia chose McCown, despite his official retirement from the game last June. When Josh and the Eagles struck a deal, McCown gave the team, unheard of, specific conditions and the Eagles gave him what he wanted.
One of the conditions being that he could do both; backup Wentz and continue coaching high school football, which gave McCown special privileges to be gone on certain days. As Cris Collinsworth pointed out during McCown's time on the field, his mere presence made those around him better, so he was able to influence a team of youngsters at the high school level and a team of professionals at the highest of levels.
Not too differently from the main character in that musical, where that jailed Joseph was remembered in a desperate time, when the ruler of Egypt had dreams he couldn't figure out, and one of his old prison mates told the ruler, I know a guy. When you help people figure out their dreams, you go from prison bars to ruling the world.
GSH Should Be On The Sleeve
If you took a piece of each uniform McCown has worn in his seventeen years in pro football, playing for twelve different teams, and you sewed them together to make one jersey, like Joseph's coat, it would be a relic of dynamic brilliance; not to unlike McCown's time in the NFL.
It's normal to want to be a Stern, Seacrest or Bones, but if you end up being a McCown, your influences will last way beyond your personal legacy, and that's a remarkably admirable time in the game.
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